Beninese singer Angelique Kidjo is touring Europe to promote her new CD, Djin Djin. On the album, Angelique sings in her native languages as well as in English and French. Guests on the album include Peter Gabriel, Carlos Santana, Ziggy Marley, Amadou & Mariam, Branford Marsalis, Josh Groban, Alicia Keys, and Joss Stone.

The daughter of an actress, dancer, and theatrical producer, Kidjo was born in Quidah, a coastal city in the West African country of Benin. Inheriting her mother's love of performing, she made her stage debut with her mother's theatrical troupe. Inspired by the rock, pop, and soul music of Jimi Hendrix, Santana, Miriam Makeba, James Brown, and Aretha Franklin, she was singing professionally by her 20th birthday. Although she recorded an album, Pretty, produced by Cameroon-based vocalist Ekambi Brilliant that yielded a hit single, "Ninive," the oppressive political environment of Benin led her to relocate to Paris in 1980. Kidjo's husband, Jean Hébrail, a French bass player and composer she met in 1987, has played a major role in the recording of her albums.

Revelations, Renaissance and Rights:Peter Gabriel talked candidly about his life and dual passions: the music industry and human rights.

CANNES, France (Hollywood Today) 2/1/08 – Music superstar and activist Peter Gabriel was named Personality of the Year here at the MIDEM Music meet, which gave us the opportunity to catch up with one of the most enigmatic and engaging figures in entertainment.

REVELATIONS: Leg in plaster, as a result of a recent skiing accident in Switzerland where he ran into a rock, Peter Gabriel hobbled to the stage and pointed to the irony of the situation that, he a rock artist, had come off a poor second in a recent altercation with the real thing. The last time he had broken his leg, he told the packed auditorium, was jumping backwards off the stage into the audience. The interviewer remarked that stage-diving was a common enough feat. When Peter Gabriel quipped back “real men do it backwards!” the audience erupted, they were going to be entertained as well as enlightened.

Asked why it was that he had decided, 30 years ago, to pursue a career as a solo artist after founding the fabled group Genesis, Gabriel revealed “It was really a decision to get out of the music business so it wasn’t a decision to go solo. Our first child had just been born and she was in an incubator for three weeks, at the same time the band were trying to finish an album off, for me there was no question of priorities. I hated the feeling that in two years time I would know exactly where I’m going to be and what I’m going to be doing, I wanted a sense of freedom, so I just stopped everything for about a year and worked on my vegetable garden very unsuccessfully but enthusiastically.”

Genesis first album was “From Genesis to Revelation” and he left in 1975 after the classic progressive concept LP “The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.”

It was Gabriel’s deep-rooted love of song writing that had brought him back into the business, he said. “But the only catch to that is very often no one wants to record your songs, so you have to do it yourself. So I got back into singing.”

The song about his departure from Genesis“Solsbury Hill,” led a string of solo hits and early MTV video breakthroughs including “Sledgehammer,” “Big Time,” “Shock the Monkey,” “Biko,” and “Games without Frontiers.”

Later, he created Real World Studios and record label, which came about as a result of Gabriel’s involvement in world music festival WOMAD 1980.“We had all these amazing artists coming through who at that time, could not get signed to labels.” Virgin offered £10,000 for each release — out of which the artist’s advance, the making of the record and sleeve all had to be funded. It was, he said a tight budget but a good discipline.

It was clear that Gabriel cared passionately about the spirit of music and the freedom of the artist “My dad was a dairy farmer and was one of the first farms to introduce loud speakers to the milking parlour and what he found out was when you treat the cows well they produce more and better quality milk!”

RENAISSENCE: Dealing with the digital earthquake that Gabriel saw it not as a death knell for the industry but as a rebirth “All sorts of wonderful new life forms grow out of a corpse and sometimes there’s a smell! I think both things … as a studio we get less today than we got 20 years ago per hour , that’s not a good business model ….but at the same time there are all these exciting opportunities and my own passion and hope is that the fundamental revolution in the economic model is the fact that in the old days you had to convince someone you were going to sell 100,000 copies to get into a studio – that’s gone; people can make records in their bedrooms people can survive with 100 fans if they’re passionate enough and willing to pay. So if the economic model really catches fire, which it will do, then all sorts of new forms of music will exist that were not commercially viable…there should be a renaissance of creativity.”

Speaking about the bands and brands furor, Gabriel said that advertising could represent “Free music for an audience that had grown up expecting music for free” as long as that advertising was well targeted.

Gabriel applauded Radiohead’s initiative in letting fans choose the price they wanted to pay and thought that the download could co-exist with and indeed complement the physical product: “I went for the full £40 package and I think there’s going to be a lot more of that- where you can get access to the stuff free, check it out and then get extra added material digitally where you pay something, but not very much and if you want a physical product that’s the deluxe package… and all those models can co-exist and keep the music business alive.”

RIGHTS: At the press conference Gabriel expanded on what was clearly his great passion: the ELDERS and WITNESS programs and saw the mobile phone and associated technology as a positive force in the fight for human rights. In reply to the question how was he able to switch from the arena of technology to the African and human rights world Gabriel responded “I think they connect very easily….this young African woman was asked by a journalist what is going to transform Africa and get it out of the mess and she pulled out her mobile phone and she said ‘This!’ The journalist said to her, I don’t believe in one technological fix changing the world and she said ‘You don’t believe in the wheel, you don’t believe in fire, this is going to have more impact than those.’ and I think she’s right”

In essence Gabriel saw the mobile phone as essential in transforming the developing world. It gave, he said, nurses the opportunity to report instantly and therefore they could combat disease more effectively. Furthermore, “Mobile phones could be used as a bank: people leave their country and can send money back to their village in the form of a phone call…this century’s financial system is going to be built on the mobile phone and the unit of communication as the currency.”

Peter Gabriel is a many-layered man, he has helped countless artists to spread their spirit through publishing their music and has allowed us to share in musical experiences which, but for his efforts, we may never have been exposed to.

He continues to fight for the rights of the artist and the rights of the developing world.

Gabriel urged the press to help make their readers aware of his human rights programs and we at Hollywood Today invite you to go to the effort by clicking onto the website www.elders.org

Hassan Hakmoun was born in Marrakech in 1963. At the age of seven he began to study tagnawit, the Gnawa related arts and lore, under the renowned Hmida Boussou. Starting with a few dances and songs, he gradually moved on to learn drumming, sintir playing ( sintir is a three-stringed long-necked lute), litanies, chants, costume and knowledge of the spirits. Hakmoun began to play for the Derdeba (Gnawa ceremony), which can last from ten in the evening into the next day. It is believed to release spirits that have inhabited a person or place.

At fourteen, Hakmoun left school to pursue a less formal education on the road. He traveled throughout Morocco, Spain and up into France, learning from his experiences and from the Gnawa masters he visited on his journey. Returning to Marrakech, Hakmoun continued to work as a Gnawa, performing as an entertainer on Jamaa el-Fna, the town square and working as a m'allem (master musician) in the Derdeba. Along with other young musicians in Marrakech, he has begun to broaden the repertory of Gnawa entertainment songs by performing Arab and Berber tunes in the Gnawa style.

Whether onstage, or visiting with friends in a small apartment, as Hakmoun sings and plays himself into a trance, people around him seem not too far from a trance-like state themselves. The pentatonic scale and driving rhythm of the Sintir are instantly appealing and familiar to Western audiences; music of the Gnawa, like much American popular music, is built from elements borrowed from West Africa. Clawhammer banjo enthusiasts will also find commonality in the percussive style of plucking the Sintir.

Hakmoun made his U.S. debut in 1987 at Lincoln Center and has been living in New York City ever since. He performed at Woodstock '94 and on the WOMAD '94 tour. Besides performing traditional Gnawa music he has performed and recorded with jazz musicians such as Don Cherry and Adam Rudolph, pop stars like Peter Gabriel and Paula Cole, and world beat artists like Jamshied Sharifi.

In the year 2000, Hassan moved from New York to Los Angeles. He is romantically involved with pop singer Paula Cole.

What do you want from Tony Levin first, the good news or the bad news?

The bad news? "Time travel will not be forthcoming," he predicts.

And the good news? "The day is coming when artificial intelligence becomes as intelligent as humans," he says. "The debate is, when will artificial intelligence reach us, in 20 or 30 years, or 150 years?"

Levin, the philosopher-bassist, professor of panspermia, plays Friday at New Covenant. It is a benefit for a high-minded cause: HopeTogether is the Penfield church's program that, since 2003, has sent members of its congregation on trips to Africa and the Katrina-battered Gulf Coast, with a specific mission to aid the poor in those troubled regions.

Levin, who has maintained his strong connection to Rochester since his days as a student at the Eastman School of Music, is planning a relaxed solo show. He figures he'll spend a portion of the evening answering questions about a career that's seen him play with Peter Gabriel, John Lennon, Paul Simon, King Crimson and the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, and as part of the three sold-out "Friends & Love" reunion shows last spring at the Eastman Theatre.

He'll bring his bass, of course. And the Chapman Stick, whose 10 strings are played by tapping them. And he'll probably bring out the Funk Fingers, the drumstick-like appendages that he wears on one hand, giving his bass a percussive sound. You can hear all of that on his latest album, Stick Man.

He'll also sing, by the way. Levin has always been in the background when he's opened his mouth, until his 2006 album Resonator. "Yeaaah," he says, looking for just the right tone of dismissiveness. "But I knew before I went into it that a lead vocalist has a lot of elements other than hitting the right notes. I just had a lot that I wanted to say that I couldn't say instrumentally."

He keeps a journal and writes poetry. And as one century gave way to the next, those observations needed to spill over into his music. "There was all of the turmoil from the end of the century, and 9/11," Levin says. "And I read a lot about science and religion, and I think there's been a lot of action in both of those fields. So I've been trying to imagine the coming century."

Science and religion have been stepping on each other's toes particularly harshly since George Bush took office, with the debates over creationism, placing the Ten Commandments in public places and stem-cell research.

On the question of artificial intelligence, Levin sees the fast pace at which new technology is introduced — "Look at how quickly people got cell phones" — as a sign that it will be 20 to 30 years, rather than 150 years, when we're surrounded by smart-aleck robots.

"I predict there will be a lot more conflict in 10-15 years, when science takes some huge leaps and, in my opinion, starts evolving humanity into a more advanced species," he says. "I don't think there's any holding it back. How will we react to man the creator, as opposed to God the creator?" To that end, he's written a song called "Throw The God a Bone."

"Dogs look at us as god. We provide for them, and they adore us," Levin says. "If, and when, we create life, will we want them" — meaning the robots or biological life that springs forth from our science — "to look at us in the same way?"

Similarly, "Places to Go" blends science with theology. Its first verse opens with, "The theory of panspermia, the theory that life came from other planets,"Levin says. This was inspired by a NASA mission to Mars, the search for water there, and accompanying microbiological life forms. "The first verse goes, 'Hello Mars, it's good to be back,'"Levin says. "Having some inherent memory of having been there before." Before the song is done, he's also visited Boston, then his grandmother in heaven. "Gee, it's good to be home," he sings at each stop.

"Intellectually, I have lots of concerns," Levin says. "What I try to do artistically is not explain those things, but filter them in through my artisticsense. Not simply to sing about religion or science."

He's much more direct with one of his major passions, photography. Levin recently published Crimson Chronicles Vol. 1, available on his Web site. It catches King Crimson rehearsing and on tour through the '80s. Levin displays an eye for backstage moments, such as drummer Bill Bruford standing on his head while Robert Fripp noodles away on his guitar. But this ain't backstage with Motley Crue. Not a groupie is to be seen. Levin has stories to tell, but he'll never make the cut on VH1: Behind the Music.

"The bands I have traveled with never have been that kind of band,"Levin says. "If you want to give it a category, they are progressive rock groups, which draw nothing like groupies. The fellows who get excited about that music have beards and play air guitar."

Peter Gabriel is recovering after breaking his left leg while skiing in Switzerland. The former Genesis star is now "learning to hobble" around his home in Wiltshire, England, after starting the year in the hospital.

Speaking on his official Web site, the singer says, "We went away for a family holiday and I was skiing. ... I was with a group of friends who tend to go at some speed ... so I thought I'd get my skis out.I hit a rock and I could feel a loud snap as I broke my leg, and then I skied down to the piste, which was a bit stupid."

Showing off his cast from his home studio, Gabriel reveals, "I've been spending a lot of time in hospital ... but I think it's all been put back together." The rocker admits he's "frustrated" by his lack of movement, adding it has been 35 years since he broke his other leg after diving from a stage in Aylesbury, England. But it's not all pain and frustration for the hitmaker -- Gabriel was named Personality of the Year by music industry market MIDEM for his music and human rights work on Monday.

At an international music conference, the musician and Web entrepreneur says new technologies must be embraced.

January 30, 2008

CANNES, France -- Peter Gabriel was saluted in grand fashion here Monday as the 2008 "personality of the year" during the annual MIDEM international music conference, an award previously handed out to such music-biz luminaries as Ahmet and Nesuhi Ertegun, Clive Davis, Quincy Jones and Montreux Jazz Festival founder Claude Nobs. But the musician and technological innovator skipped the opportunity to revel in the past that this kind of honor affords.

Accepting a glass trophy from MIDEM President Paul Zilk before a group of about 300 industry movers and shakers that also included his mother and sister, Gabriel remarked that "It's time to put the corpse of what we know as the record industry in the ground and let some other beautiful things start to grow out of it."

Few appeared to take offense, as the forward-thinking musician echoed comments he'd made earlier in the day and that others have been raising during the five-day gathering of nearly 9,500 participants from 91 countries.

In both settings Gabriel, 57 and hobbling on crutches with a broken foot from a recent skiing accident, urged musicians and industry executives to embrace rather than fight the technological changes and shifting culture patterns that have put the music business into a nose dive in recent years.

One specific response of his own is the recently launched We7 Internet service that generates free legal music downloads by pairing music with brief advertisements that create the revenue to pay artists. Gabriel has sunk $6 million of his own money into We7, which he said has logged about 1 1/2 million downloads since it went online last year.

The advertising-driven download model is one that many companies represented at MIDEM are experimenting with in different ways, and Gabriel acknowledged the potential pitfalls of so directly mixing art and commerce.

"It's climbing in bed with the devil," he said shortly before the award dinner at the Carlton Hotel. But the day of keeping the two segregated may well be over."I'm a big fan of Neil Young," Gabriel said, "but the artist who has complete control of his music and keeps his music completely apart from advertising is probably a thing of the last century."

The way Gabriel sees it, most young listeners are accustomed to hearing music in advertising environments. So by combining the ad-sponsored downloads for free with commercial pitches tailored to each We7 user's individual interests, ads can "become less annoying and more informational. It's about not selling dog food to cat owners."

The idea expands on what Gabriel helped develop with TheFilter.com, a website that generates music playlists based on users' record collections. Asked whether he was worried about other similar services now coming online, Gabriel said, "I love competition -- bring it on."

And he pointed to Radiohead's recent release of its "In Rainbows" album first as a pay-what-you-will digital download and then a physical CD as the wave of the future. "I think we'll be seeing a lot more of that, where artists don't just release one thing in one form," said Gabriel, who bought the deluxe version of "In Rainbows" costing around $80. "Fans will probably be able to get a free download version, then have the choice of buying a physical copy, or paying a bit more for a deluxe version with lots of extras. Finally I think we'll be seeing more artists releasing the limited-edition, handmade, signed edition. I think all those models can coexist."

As for Gabriel's long-incubating "Big Blue Ball" project, featuring artists from around the world who recorded in his Real World studio in England over three years in the '90s, his numerous philanthropic activities have limited his time to finish it. He quipped that it would be released "this century -- weather permitting," but added that it should see the light of day in 2008.

It was his involvement with the Elders, a coalition of 13 world leaders including Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Kofi Annan and Jimmy Carter, that prevented the singer from joining his original band, Genesis, on its reunion tour last year.

"There's no animosity" with his former bandmates, Gabriel said, and left open the possibility of revisiting the reunion idea. Not long before Led Zeppelin's reunion in London in November, Gabriel said he got a call from singer Robert Plant, wanting to know one thing: "He asked which of us was going to sell out first."

CANNES, France (Hollywood Reporter) - Paul McGuinness, longtime manager of rock band U2, has called on Internet service providers to immediately introduce disconnection policies to end illegal music downloads and urged governments to make sure they do. In a passionate keynote speech delivered Monday during the International Managers Summit at the MIDEM music conference, McGuinness said it was time for artists to stand up against what he called the "shoddy, careless and downright dishonest way they have been treated in the digital age."

He spread the blame between record labels that "through lack of foresight and planning allowed a range of industries to arise that let people steal music"; Silicon Valley companies that create marvelous devices but "don't think of themselves as makers of burglary kits"; and governments who "created a thieves' charter" by agreeing that ISPs should not be responsible for what passes along their pipes. "There's a lot of money in the music business, but it has stopped coming to the artists," McGuinness said, though he agreed that U2 long ago determined that it "would be pathetic to be great artists but not be great at business."

Decrying ISPs that hold up their hands in innocence when music is downloaded via their systems, he offered a comparison. "If you were a magazine advertising stolen cars, handling the money for stolen cars and seeing to the delivery of stolen cars, the police would soon be at your door," he said. "That's no different to an ISP, but they say they can't do anything about it. If you steal a laptop from a store or don't pay for your broadband service, you'll soon be cut off and nicked."

To great applause from the audience of music managers, McGuinness insisted that disconnection enforcement would work. "I call on ISPs to do two things. First, protect the music, and second, to make a genuine effort to share the enormous revenues. They should share their ingenuity as well as the money. We must shame them. Their snouts have been at our trough for too long."

Later, musician Peter Gabriel added his support, agreeing that a lot of money is being made out of music by ISPs. He expressed concern, though, about blanket deals. "The trouble with any blanket agreement is that the money doesn't tend to trickle down to the artists," he said at a news conference. "We've all been told in the past about these kinds of deals, and we never see it in our (bank) accounts. It needs to be not just verbiage. It needs to express itself in money too." In Cannes for a banquet honoring him as MIDEM's 2008 Personality of the Year, Gabriel wore a cast on his left leg as the result of a skiing mishap. "I hit a rock," he said. "And I used to think of myself as a rock artist."

28 janvier 2008

CANNES, France (AFP) — CDs may well be seen as 'yesterday's' technology by young digitally-savvy music lovers, but there's life left in the shiny discs for some years to come, leading industry executives said Sunday. Plummeting CD sales worldwide have been blamed for many of the current woes of the global music business as new digital music products and services continue to grow and seduce consumers. But that is only part of the CD story.

"I believe there will be sales of physical (CD and vinyl) products for many years to come," Jean-Bernard Levy, who heads up Universal Music's parent company, entertainment giant Vivendi SA, told a music conference at the MIDEM music mart, the world's biggest music industry event taking place in this Riviera seaside resort. Many consumers are still buying CDs in supermarkets, retail stores or from online stores such as Amazon, Levy said.

His view was echoed by another leading music executive, Thomas Hesse, who heads global digital business at another record major, Sony BMG. "Physical is a business you shouldn't talk down," he said. Thirty percent of Americans don't have Internet access, for example, and still buy music, Hesse noted. And of the 18 million copies of superstar Justin Timberlake's new album that sold recently, three million were CDs, he said.

CD sales, however, have been declining steadily over the past three to four years as digital music explodes onto a host of devices and online music download stores. According to the IFPI, the industry body that represents the international recording industry, physical sales, which are virtually entirely made up of CDs, dropped from 21.5 billion in 2004 to 17.5 billion in 2006 and slumped further to an estimated 15 billion in 2007. Digital sales have soared by comparison.

Record company revenues from online digital music sales climbed 40 percent to 2.9 billion dollars (1.9 billion euros) in 2007. But the jump still failed to make up for the drop in physical sales, which companies blame largely on rampant online music piracy. CD sales also seem to increase when artists include added value, such as extra tracks or information about the band along with the CD, industry experts said.

The concept of delux packaging has attracted at least one entertainer -- Genesis rocker and digital innovator Peter Gabriel, who told the influential US music magazine Billboard he has been looking into the concept for some time. The festive period also gave a shot in the arm to CD sales, according to industry analysts, which had a good Christmas in Britain.

It's been a tumultuous start to the year for the digitally down-at-heel global music industry. First Robbie Williams went on strike from his label, protesting at the "EMI bean counters"' plans to restructure the ailing company. Then the figures came in from international music body, the IFPI, revealing CD sales fell about 10 per cent last year, a decrease only partially offset by the 40 per cent increase in digital music sales.

In Britain, the industry attacked internet providers who they accuse of allowing the public to download pirated music willy-nilly. It's pushing for EU law to make internet service providers responsible for monitoring traffic on their network and to cut off members downloading music illegally. Amidst the acrimony, there are some companies trying to come up with innovative ways to stave off the collapse of the music industry, although it's far too early to tell if they'll be successful.

A significant deal went down last week when web radio station Lastfm.com, bought last year by American broadcaster CBS for US$280 million (NZ$361.7m), signed a deal with major music labels to allow Lastfm to stream their songs on the web, free to access worldwide. It's a big move for Universal, EMI, Sony BMG and Warners, who favour paid-for digital downloads along the iTunes.com model over emerging business models - such as advertising-supported downloads and on-demand streaming services.

There's also the risk software will become widely available that will allow people to record high-quality versions of the tracks being streamed from Lastfm, making music piracy even easier than it is now. But the labels have built some conditions of use into the service to avoid making it too sweet for free-riding listeners. When the labels' 3.5 million tunes become available "in the coming months", you will only be able to listen to each song three times.

Lastfm says it will make a premium service available for people who want to pay for repeat playback of songs. The premium service and advertising on the Lastfm website will provide revenue and is immediately available to listeners in Britain, the US and Germany.

Taking a different tack is rock icon Peter Gabriel with We7.com, his music download venture which has just received a US$6m injection of venture capital. We7.com lets you download music tracks for free - but there's a catch. Each song has an advert at the start. You have to listen to the ad for the first eight times you listen to the song. I gave it a go, downloaded a zipped-up version of Ocean Colour Scene's single Make the Deal and ran it in Windows Media Player.

A five-second advert played before the song, a not very memorable melodic rock number. I like the model, but Gabriel and his fellow financiers have a bigger battle making We7.com work than getting people to listen to these short ads. None of the big labels are on board. So you can't even download Gabriel classics such as Solsbury Hill from the website he helped found.

But the key to the long-term future of Lastfm and We7.com may lie in a generation of emerging musicians. They comprise a good deal of the listings on We7.com. They share in advertising revenue, while Lastfm has a system so unknown artists can upload their songs to the website and receive a tiny royalty each time the song is played. Small steps, then, towards tackling issues facing an industry that grew fat on the CD.

27 janvier 2008

Kudsi Erguner lives and works in Paris as musician (Ney-flute, which is a reed flute), composer, musicologist, teacher, author, and translator.

He was born February 4 of 1952 in Diyarbakir, Turkey. Erguner comes from a family of Turkish musicians. His contact with many famous musicians from the older generation, who continually passed through his parents house, and his involvement with various Sufi-brotherhoods, whose music and teachings Erguner studied, left their decisive marks on him. He received his training directly from his father, Ulvi Erguner, who was the last great master of the ney.

In 1969 he became a member of Istanbul Radio Orchestra. A few yeas later, in 1975, he moved to Paris to study in architecture and musicology.

Erguner carried out musical research in 1976 and collaborated on the filming on location in Afghanistan of Peter Brook's movie, Meetings with Remarkable Men.

In 1980 he made a research trip to Turkey, commissioned by UNESCO. A year later he founded in Paris the Mevlana Institute for the study of the classical music and teachings of the Sufis.

During 1985-88 he created original compositions, including work for Peter Brook's Mahabharata (theater piece and film).

In 1986/87 he made an expedition to Pakistan commissioned by Radio France and France Musique for the purpose of recording and documenting traditional music

The year 1988 saw the creation of the group Fasl (later the Kudsi Erguner Ensemble) with the goal of reviving the classical music repertoire of the 16th century Ottoman Empire. That same year he collaborated with Peter Gabriel on the soundtrack for Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ.

In 1991 he composed original music for Neva, a ballet by Carolyn Carlson, performed at the Théâtre de la Ville de Paris. He also provided original music in 1997 for the ballet Le Voyage Nocturne by Maurice Béjart, performed at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Paris

Kudsi Erguner's Ottomania (1999) is alleged to be the first World Music project that integrates the classical music of the Ottoman Empire with Western jazz improvisations and rhythms. It documents the story of a remarkable musical encounter, and is a logical continuation of Erguner's eventful life. "Unfortunately, 99% of the fusion music that is produced today is simply badly pasted together collages. With Ottomania, I have attempted to let a fusion really develop. It was therefore necessary for both sides to take a step towards each other. With Kudsi Erguner's ensemble on one side, and three great musicians from the international jazz scene - the German saxophonist Christof Lauer, the French tuba and serpent player Michel Godard, and the American drummer Mark Nauseef - on the other, Ottomania has successfully taken this step."

Kudsi Erguner has given concerts and played in major festivals throughout the world. He has researched the music of India, Pakistan, and Turkey, grounded diverse music ensembles, recorded numerous albums, and has worked with such well known artists as Peter Gabriel (Passion, Us), Maurice Béjart, Peter Brook, Georges Aperghis, Didier Lockwood, and Michel Portal.

Erguner has thus made authoritative contributions to World Music. He has documented and revived nearly forgotten musical traditions and brought them to the attention of the Western public, securing them a place within Europe's cultural inheritance.

PETER GABRIEL is to be named Personality of the Year on Monday (28Jan08) by music industry market MIDEM for his music and human rights work It is the latest honour for the Sledgehammer singer who, within the last year (07), has received a lifetime achievement at Britain's Ivor Novello Awards and a Man of Peace honour from the Nobel Peace Laureates.

Gabriel says, "I must be getting to that awards time of life; it's God way of telling you you're getting on." Reed MIDEM CEO Paul Zilk described Gabriel as "an outstanding musician with an international following of millions". He adds, "Throughout his career he's shown that music transcends pure entertainment and can be put to the service of important issues such as human rights."

Today sees the launch of the Cape Town Open Education Declaration which aims to make learning and teaching materials freely available online, to improve the quality of education in schools in South Africa and the rest of the world, leveraging the potential for open collaboration on the Web.

The declaration resulted from a meeting organised by the the Shuttleworth Foundation and the Open Society Institute in Cape Town last September and it already has some high-profile international signatories, including Ubuntu’s Mark Shuttleworth, Jimmy Wales of Wikipedia, Lawrence Lessig of Creative Commons and musician Peter Gabriel.

Although named after Cape Town, this declaration is part of a global initiative to encourage governments and publishers worldwide to make all of their publicly funded materials freely available online. That the declaration has already been translated into 15 languages so far is testament to its global reach.As part of the declaration, teachers and students worldwide are urged to use the web to share, remix and translate classroom materials to make education more accessible, effective, and flexible. Part of the motivation behind this effort is to overcome challenges faced by low-income and far-flung areas in accessing educational materials, giving students unlimited access to high quality and constantly improving course materials.

“Open education allows every person on earth to access and contribute to the vast pool of knowledge on the web,” said Wales, who was also one of the authors of the declaration. “Everyone has something to teach and everyone has something to learn.”

The concept of open education combines the open source aspects of allowing free access to the source and the freedom to make changes together with a focus on the learners that allows them to provide feedback and become more deeply involved in the teaching process. Through this collaboration the aim is to provide educational materials that are individually tailored to best suit the needs of the learners.

“Open sourcing education doesn’t just make learning more accessible, it makes it more collaborative, flexible and locally relevant,” said Shuttleworth. “Linux is succeeding exactly because of this sort of adaptability. The same kind of success is possible for open education.” (To view a video press briefing given by Shuttleworth, go to http://capetowndeclaration.blip.tv)

“I am particularly pleased that this launch is taking place in Africa, because Africa represents both the greatest opportunity for transformation if we get this right and perhaps the greatest risk if we fail, to really open the doors of knowledge and learning to all in the world today,” he added.

“Cultural diversity and local knowledge are a critical part of open education,” said Eve Gray of the Centre for Educational Technology at the University of Cape Town. “Countries like South Africa need to start producing and sharing educational materials built on their own diverse cultural heritage. Open education promises to make this kind of diverse publishing possible.”

Readers are encouraged to sign the declaration, which can be done here.

Peter Gabriel's free music downloads site We7.com has secured £3m in funding.

We7 has been pushing advertising-supported music in an attempt to encourage take-up of legal music downloads, as well as tap the growth in digital advertising. UK-based venture firms Spark and Eden Ventures teamed up with Gabriel for the second round of funding, with Eden co-founder Charles Grimsdale joining the We7 board.

The service has been trialling 10-second integrated adverts, which are tagged on to tracks and targeted at the demographic of the listener. Advertisers so far have included Microsoft's Xbox 360, Sony Ericsson, Cafe Direct and the Michael Moore film Sicko. We7 was launched publicly in May 2007 with initial investment from Gabriel and its chief executive, Steve Purdham.

Gabriel said We7's aim was to keep music free for consumers while maintaining some income for artists. "When advertising is smart enough to be a responsive information service, it is less intrusive for the listener and more effective for the seller," he added. The site offers a catalogue of 80,000 tracks through deals with independent bands and partnerships with the Sanctuary, Big Fish and mTunes labels. Last week, it reached its millionth download.